


Baby

by MelyndaR



Category: High School Musical (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-28
Updated: 2015-01-28
Packaged: 2018-03-09 11:57:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 12,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3248810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelyndaR/pseuds/MelyndaR
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Wildcats are assigned the "baby project" for one month during their Teen Living Can they survive being parents, and, more importantly, can they survive each other? And maybe even find some romance in the midst of it all?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part 1: The Project - Chad

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry that the chapter is so short, but since I'm doing one POV per chapter for this story, the chapter lengths might be a little unpredictable.

A painfully loud thud came from the back of Ms. Sanchez's classroom, snapping Chad Danforth out of his mindless dazing. He whipped around in his desk chair to see Jason Cross holding his forehead, eyes bleary with sleep. Chad smirked; yes, their Teen Living class was incredibly boring, but even he had learned long ago not to fall asleep in class, to at least look like he was paying a little bit of attention to whatever spiel the teacher was rambling on about.

Jason flushed and muttered an apology to Ms. Sanchez and the whole class in general. Ms. Sanchez glared at him with a pinched expression, unimpressed as always, before she sighed.

"Well, Mr. Cross," the teacher said wearily, "At least you've seen fit to wake up in time to hear my next announcement along with the rest of your classmates."

Chad watched with mild curiosity as the teacher surveyed the room full of students. She looked something like a tiger about to tear into an innocent herd of beautiful baby gazelles, he thought. This meant that there was most likely a huge chunk of homework that she was getting ready to dump on them. He groaned internally.

"In today's society," Ms. Sanchez geared up to begin teaching the "eager young minds" that sat half-awake in her class. "Eleven hundred teenage girls give birth  _every day_. Bearing this in mind, I think that we can all agree that teenage parenting is a big part of the lives of numerous teens. Am I correct?" she paused for a moment and was met with only silence before she nodded briskly as if someone had actually answered her. "Good; I'm glad that we all agree, since, for the next month, every one of you is going to be a teenage parent."

Chad's eyebrows drew together.  _What?_

Grinning like a lunatic, Ms. Sanchez pulled a sheet-covered cart from one corner of the room to the front of it, beside her desk, and whipped the sheet from off of the cart's contents. In the classroom of thirty-two students, sixteen realistic-looking, high-tech dolls were suddenly staring at the group of teenagers.

As he realized what the assignment was, panic shot through Chad as his eye widened.

_Oh, no way!_


	2. The Project - Ryan

Ryan Evans stared in horror at the wide-eyed dolls, his expression matching those of most of his classmates. Another thought skittered across his brain and he followed the impulse that some might call twin telepathy but he just called over-exposure to Sharpay, and he scrunched down in his seat, covering his ears a mere second before his sister's shrill, panicked scream sliced through the silence of Ms. Sanchez and the other students.

"I'm glad to see you so excited over a school project, Miss Evans," Ms. Sanchez said coolly, looking at the blonde.

Ryan, along with the rest of the class, looked at the teacher like she had lost her mind.

"You actually expect us to take care of one of those things by ourselves?!"Sharpay screeched, looking like she was getting ready to hyperventilate.

"No, not at all;" Ms. Sanchez answered, ignoring how dramatically Sharpay had voiced the question. "You'll be working in pairs." So declaring, Ms. Sanchez swiped a list from off of her desk and consulted it. "Now, let's see here… for example, Mr. Troy Bolton will be working with Miss Gabriella Montez. Would one of the two of you like to come get your newborn?"

Ms. Sanchez picked up a doll wrapped in a baby blue blanket and wearing the type of striped, white hats that newborns wear in the hospital. With an affirming glance at Troy, Gabriella started forward from her desk in the back of the classroom, and when she reached her boyfriend's desk Troy jumped up and winked at her before sliding an arm around her waist. Pink tinted her cheeks a little as the duo went up together to claim their new "son."

"He's got brown hair, just like his old man," Troy remarked, looking down at the doll in Gabriella's arms.

Being as much of a good sport – and an actor – as Troy, Gabriella too smiled down at the doll, responding, "Then let's call him Troy, Jr." she elbowed Troy lightly. "After his 'old man.' Is that all right, Ms. Sanchez?"

To the right of Ryan, Martha Cox softly "aww"ed, and so did Taylor McKessie, earning the latter an eye-roll from an obviously put-out Chad. This was not a project that most of the students seemed to like the idea of.

"Of course it is;" Ms. Sanchez answered, looking pleased. Then she turned to the entire class. "Naming your baby is an important part of learning to connect with him or her, and if you try to get into the spirit of the project, you may find that it goes a bit easier for you." Looking back at Troy and Gabriella, she said," Mr. Bolton, Miss Montez, thank you for your wonderful attitude, and I hope that the rest of the class feels led to follow your examples."

Then she turned to the class as a whole. "Another thing that I would like for you to do is to move the desks together so that they are all side-by-side in pairs. That way, for the next month in this class, you can sit by your partner with your baby as a family. Do you think that we can get some of our strong young men to assist us with that?"

Along with a few of the other guys, Ryan stood up and began to push the desks together how Ms. Sanchez had asked. In a couple of minutes, he sat back down at his desk and watched, growing increasingly nervous, as Ms. Sanchez continued to call out pairs who would be working together. For the most part, she seemed to be pairing up students that were all ready couples, and that made Ryan nervous. Since Sharpay had scared sweet, conflict-avoiding Martha Cox away from him earlier in the school year, Ryan had been single, so he had no idea who he was going to be paired with, but they were getting close to the end of all of the pairing up, so he was bound to find out soon.

Speaking of Martha…

"Mr. Jason Cross will be parenting with Miss Martha Cox," Ms. Sanchez declared.

Ryan smiled to himself as Martha followed the pattern that seemed to have been silently established – the girl got up from her desk with all of her things in tow, took the doll that she and her partner were to be working with, and moved to the desk beside her partner's. He watched her as she did this. She was blushing slightly, that having started from the moment when she had heard her name with Jason's, and a careful smile tilted at the lips that she was nibbling on as she sat down next to the basketball player with a pink-swaddled bundle in her arms.

 _I knew it!_ Ryan thought triumphantly. Martha liked Jason Cross, and – he narrowed his eyes, looking closer at Ms. Sanchez – from the look on their teacher's face and the barely noticeable glimmer in her eye, she had known it too. Ryan leaned forward, on the edge of his seat now. If that was what this woman was basing her partnering on, then was there any chance that she might pair him with…

As if to answer his question, Ms. Sanchez said, "Mr. Ryan Evans, you're with Miss Kelsi Neilson."

 _Yes!_ Ryan grinned sedately, barely restraining the desire to whoop. There was justice in the world after all. Directly in front of him, judging just by her posture, Ryan could tell that Sharpay was rolling her eyes at this, but, as Kelsi shyly came over and slid into the seat beside him, he didn't even care.

He grinned at the petite, unsure-looking brunette. She smiled in return and shifted the doll in a blue blanket around in her arms, looking like she was on a mission that she didn't know how she was going to accomplish. Ryan raised his blond eyebrows and gestured minutely towards the doll, offering to take… him. Kelsi smiled gratefully and carefully handed him over. As Ryan shifted the weight of the doll in his arms – he judged it to be about eight pounds – he watched what Kelsi was doing. After glancing up to make sure that Ms. Sanchez was distracted, she grabbed a notebook out of her backpack, flipped it open, and quickly scribbled three words on it before showing the page to Ryan.

_Sebastian (after Bach)?_

He grinned at her, nodding as she rapidly shut the notebook. Maybe this project wasn't going to be so bad after all…

And then Sharpay screamed.


	3. The Project - Zeke

Zeke stared up at Ms. Sanchez in startled surprise. He wasn't blind; he had seen that Ms. S. had been pairing up couples, or at least wanna-be couples. So, wait a second, why did Chad get Sharpay. If ever East High had ever had a wanna-be couple, it was Zeke and Sharpay, and Zeke knew it. And apparently Chad agreed with him.

As soon as Sharpay's ear-splitting shriek ended, Chad started objecting to their teacher's decision. "What do you mean I have to do this thing with Sharpay! Come on, Ms. S., make Zeke do her!"

"Yeah," Zeke spoke up. "Make Zeke do her!"

"Chad was supposed to work with me!" Taylor added, reaching across her desk and laying a hand on her boyfriend's shoulder.

Chad literally shrugged her off, too busy using his eyes to plead with the teacher to take notice of the girlfriend that he had obviously become increasingly fed up with in recent weeks.

Ms. Sanchez turned her laser eyes on to each of the four students in turn, declaring, "My decisions are final. Any further arguments may result in detention time, and I can guarantee you all that you do not want to be dealing with Ms. Darbus' stage lights and your dolls at the same time. Am I understood?" Ms. Sanchez relaxed as she regained control of her students. "Now that we have that under control… Miss Evans, would you like to come get your baby girl?"

Sharpay huffed, sitting back in her chair and crossing her arms stubbornly over her chest. Her lip suddenly protruded as she realized that they had lost this argument. Chad groaned at both Sharpay and the entire situation and then went to get the doll himself before flopping down at the desk beside Sharpay with a brooding roll of his eyes.

"And that means that our final couple is Mr. Zeke Baylor and Miss Taylor McKessie."

Taylor sighed as she moved grudgingly forward to accept the doll in another blue blanket. Zeke couldn't bear to watch, and dropped his head down on his arms, which he had crossed on his desk. A moment later, he heard the desk chair beside him squeak as Taylor lowered her slight self into it. He stifled a groan. His life. Was over.


	4. The Project - Troy

Troy Bolton reached for Gabriella's hand under her desk and squeezed it. Looking around at his friends, he had never felt so grateful that she was his. Especially when compared to Chad and Sharpay or Zeke and Taylor. Really? Sure, Chad had been blowing off steam recently about being unhappy in his relationship with Taylor, calling her bossy, uptight, and distanced, but, really, Troy couldn't see how sticking his poor co-captain with Sharpay for a month was going to help anything.

Oh well. At least he could be grateful that it wasn't him.

"Okay, moms and dads," Ms. Sanchez was talking to the entire class again, so Troy tuned in. "It's time to do a little shopping for your little ones." She gestured to the cloth bags and car seats that still remained on the industrial cart. "These are your diaper bags and car seats; as you can see, each one of them has been personalized for your convenience in keeping track of which is yours. Each bag is filled with all of the things that you'll need for taking care of your baby. So, everybody, come on up and pick one of each; do a little shopping, if you will."

Troy smiled, finding it humorous that Sharpay easily bit this pointed bait and headed up front with some of the other students. Like most of the other guys, Troy took the "baby" from his girlfriend and stayed seated for this one, content to let Gabriella do the "shopping." He watched as Sharpay went up front, making a beeline for one specific bag and car seat set, instead of actually looking at her options. She snatched up a sparkly, hot pink bag and the matching bag and turned to sit back down at her desk by Chad. Troy caught Chad, who had apparently been keeping an eye on Sharpay as well, throw his head back and groan.

"I am  _not_ carrying those things around," Troy heard Chad informed the drama queen as she took her seat once again. "If you want that bag and seat that much, then you can be the one to haul it."

Sharpay just raised her eyebrows and gave Chad a "look," as if saying, "You wanna bet?" Chad rolled his eyes and turned his face forward, his and Sharpay's "child" straddled limply across one of his legs. Troy tried not to laugh, especially since he knew that he really should pity his best friend.

Gabriella came back and sat down, holding a red diaper bag with the school's wildcat logo on it and a car seat, also red. She held it up a little and Troy nodded his approval, glad there wasn't a speck of pink on either item.

"Okay, class," Ms. Sanchez said as everyone returned to their seats. "The bell is going to ring in a second, so I'll wrap this up by saying 'good luck' and reminding you that the results of this project will count as a solid chunk of your overall grade in my class."

"Wait," Zeke spoke up. "Don't we get an instruction manual for these things, or something?"

Ms. Sanchez smiled; her expression caught somewhere oddly between condescending and indulgent. "Do other couple's babies come with instruction manuals?"

"No," Jason answered for Zeke, mumbling, "But I think they should."

A few of the other students murmured their agreement.

"But that is simply not realistic, and the point of this assignment is to give you as realistic a parenting experience as is possible. My advice to you, though, would be to discuss the project with your friends; that way, as you all learn things about your babies, you will be able to share that knowledge with others, and maybe make it easier on each other. Just like real parents do.

"Now," Ms. Sanchez took a remote out of her pants' pocket and held it up for them all to see. "When I push this button, your babies will come alive for the next month."

And then four things happened at once, throwing the room into chaos. The bell rang, signaling the end of the school day. Ms. Sanchez pushed the button on the remote and practically sang out, "Good luck to you all!" And all the babies' blinked, "coming alive."

Kids flowed out of the classrooms from all directions as Troy made his way out of Ms. Sanchez's room, already surrounded by Gabriella, Chad, Martha, and Jason.

"I think I like Ms. Sanchez," Jason stated, turning a little red as he glanced at Martha, who was at his side. Jason bounced his "baby girl" in his arms, the car seat swinging against his thigh from one of his arms. "I think that this project might be fun."

Chad looked at Jason in disgust and slapped him in the back of the head. "Dude, shut up!"

"What?" Jason asked cluelessly. And then, "Oh, yeah; sorry about you getting Sharpay, man."

Chad rolled his eyes again and shook his head. Troy choked back a laugh, noting that his co-captain was holding not only his "daughter," but had also already been saddled with the diaper bag and car seat that Sharpay had chosen.

"Shoot me," Chad muttered under his breath.

"If I do, will you return the favor?" Zeke asked, coming up with Taylor, Ryan, Kelsi, and Sharpay.

"Oh, come on, guys," Kelsi started in, ever their ray of optimistic sunshine. "It may not be that bad."

As if to contradict her statement, Chad's "baby girl" let out a shriek. Chad almost dropped her, eyes widening.

"Guys…?" Chad asked, looking around at the group with a growing amount of panic in his eyes. "How do I stop this thing?"

"Well, if you're supposed to treat her like a real baby," Martha, their resident babysitter suggested. "Maybe you should try bouncing her?"

Chad began to jiggle the baby doll, holding it with as little physical contact as possible. Because of that, the baby teetered on his fingertips before dropping out of his hands. Kelsi caught the doll in mid-air, admonishing, "Babies like to feel safe, Chad, and protected." Kelsi tucked the blanket closer around the baby and held her close. "Like this, see."

"You had better not break that thing, Chad," Sharpay spoke up sharply. "If you do, we'll both be getting an 'F'."

"And another thing, you two," Ryan added. "You'd probably better stop calling her a 'thing.' Remember what Mrs. Sanchez said about naming our babies?"

"Her name is Sparkle," Sharpay declared airily.

"Sparkle?!" Chad repeated in openmouthed disbelief.

"Of course." Sharpay answered. Then she turned to Ryan. "Are you ready to go home? I have a fitting for my newest costume dress in an hour, you know."

Ryan glanced at Kelsi. "Actually, I think I'm going to hang out with Kelsi this evening and get some things ironed out about Sebastian." He indicated the baby in the car seat that he was holding.

A moment of looking miffed, and then Sharpay said, "Fine," and spun on her high heel.

"Hey, sis?"

Sharpay stopped and looked expectantly over her shoulder at Ryan.

"What about Chad?"

Sharpay looked with assessing eyes first at "Sparkle," then at Chad and shrugged. "He looks fine to me." And then she disappeared down the hallway.

Chad sighed and looked down at the doll Kelsi was still holding, before taking it back into his arms, holding her the way that Kelsi had. "Well, Sparky, I guess it's just gonna be me and you."

At Sharpay's exit, the others had started to disperse as well, until it was just Troy, Gabriella, and their baby left at his locker. Troy grabbed his stuff from his locker, slammed the door, and leaned against it.

"Do you want me to take TJ while you go get your stuff? Then we can meet at my truck; maybe go to my place for a little while to explain this project to my parents?"

"Sure," Gabriella shifted the baby into his arms, adding, "but I think that Ryan's right. We need to start referencing him as a baby," she smiled. "Or even 'our son,' but not a doll or 'project,' okay?"

Troy shrugged. "Okay with me; whatever you think is best, 'Mommy.' "

Gabriella grinned. "Good answer, 'Daddy.'"

And then she disappeared too, busy weaving her way through the crowds in the halls to get to her locker. Troy's gaze switched from her to the bushy head of hair that was bobbing through the throngs even further down the hall, Chad – suddenly apparently a single dad of sorts – as he tried to make his way to the school's exit. Closer to Troy, but still far enough away, Zeke and Taylor grabbed their stuff out of their respective lockers that were only a few apart as both of them pretended to be in their own world without acknowledging the other. Taylor had her and Zeke's baby in the car seat at her feet. Making their way down the crowded hallway, Martha had the strap of the diaper bag for her and Jason's baby slung over her shoulder and the baby in her arms while Jason still had the car seat. As Troy watched, the two would start on opposite sides of the hallway, and then slowly drift together before moving back onto opposite sides of the hall. This happened over and over again as they both made their way towards the exit. And then there was Ryan and Kelsi; they were both at Kelsi's locker. Ryan's shoulder propped him up against the locker next to Kelsi's as he languidly swung the baby-containing car seat in his hands while talking to Kelsi and somehow looking as comfortable as ever. As Troy watched, Kelsi slammed her locker door shut, hefted her school bag onto one shoulder and Sebastian's diaper bag onto the other, and said something to Ryan. The blond boy nodded in return and they turned together to join the masses leaving the school. As the duo turned from being face to face with one another, though, Troy saw nervousness, excitement, and uncertainty pour into the eyes of both of them – the emotions of teenagers who were finally acting on what was probably their first real crush.

Troy shook his head and looked down at the baby he held, telling him, "TJ, I don't think that I have ever been more grateful for your wonderful mommy then I am today."


	5. The Project - Martha

Martha knew that next to nobody in the entire school understood how she could be attracted to Jason Cross. After all, she was a dancing, brainy geek girl, and he was… well, politely put, he was simply… Jason. But she was one of the few people who saw that he was more than that. She saw that he was sweet and caring and gentle and even funny, in his own way. And he didn't particularly care what people thought about him. She liked that about him. All in all – even though he had an embarrassing tendency to fall asleep during class – she just liked him, period.

Even better, she was pretty sure that he liked her too.

At least that would explain why he acted so nervous as he got the baby, car seat and all, out of her car and carried it into her parents' house before setting the car seat down on the floor in the living room.

"Nice place," he commented, looking around the room.

She smiled, "Thanks."

"So…?"

"So…" And the inspiration struck. "Hey, can you get the baby out of her car seat? We've got some stuff here that she might, I don't know… like, or something."

"Okay," Jason shrugged and knelt down in front of the car seat as Martha hurried to the hall closet.

When Martha reentered the room a couple of minutes later with a bouncy seat, the basketball player was still on his knees in front of the car seat, trying to figure out how to unbuckle all the straps. She set the bouncy seat down by a recliner and went to help him.

"Here, let me."

As she slid to her knees beside him and undid the apparatus with a few practiced flicks of her wrists, Jason sighed and raked a hand through his dark hair. He looked at her in shock as she slid their baby – the very thought made her blush irrationally – out of the pink and yellow pastel car seat and onto her shoulder.

"How?" Jason asked, sitting back on his heels.

"I babysit a lot," she explained, rising to her feet and moving to the bouncy seat. "And I have two older siblings, which means lots of nieces and nephews to practice on."

"Cool." He smiled as he sat down on the edge of the couch, watching her as she strapped the baby into the bouncy seat and turned the vibrator in it on. "My only brother's still in college, so the closest thing that I've got to that is our neighbor's five year old twin boys." His eyes widened in fear as he looked at the baby in the bouncy seat, asking, "You don't think that she'll be like them, do you?"

"Like twin five year old boys?" Martha smiled. "Nah, I doubt it. She seems pretty quiet so far."

"Maybe she takes after you?" Jason ventured.

Martha raised an eyebrow. "You think that I'm quiet?"

Jason paused, squinting a little at her as he thought, before answering, "Only when compared to some."

"Good answer," she nodded.

Jason looked back down at the doll in the bouncy seat at Martha's feet. "So…?"

"She needs a name," Martha declared, also looking down at the wide-eyed doll.

"What kind of name?" Jason asked cautiously, probably thinking of the outrageous name that Sharpay had chosen earlier for her and Chad's baby.

"A normal one."

"What?" Jason smirked. "You mean you don't like the name 'Sparkle?'"

Martha grinned and shook her head a little. "Not particularly."

"Okay," Jason settled back against the couch. "How about Jane?"

"I think that's maybe  _too_  normal."

"Ann?"

Martha shook her head.

"Jo?" Jason began to fire names off as Martha jiggled the bouncy seat with her foot. "Jill? Dawn? Sue? Grace? E-"

"Grace?" Martha repeated thoughtfully.

Jason stopped his list. "Yeah, Grace."

"Like hope, faith, and forgiveness? That sort of thing?"

"Mm, I was thinking more like a dancer," Jason grinned shyly. "Like her mom."

Martha almost laughed. She really didn't think of herself as a graceful dancer; that's why she liked hip-hop, it didn't really require "grace," per se.

"Okay," Martha nodded with a growing smile. "'Grace' it is."

Jason smiled and, to Martha's surprise, moved and got down on the floor in front of the bouncy seat. He grinned at the baby doll, asking it, "What do you think; do you like that name, Grace?"

The baby actually cooed up at Jason. He laughed, seemingly forgetting Martha for a minute as he talked to Grace. "Yeah, you do, don't you? Yes, you do. Yes, you do."

The doll started talking back to her "dad," and Martha grinned down at the two of them. Jason was a silly, caring boy who was willing to get down on the floor and essentially play with dolls, even at his age. And that was why she liked him.

 


	6. Part 2: The Breakup - Chad

Chad was ticked. No, actually, he was more than ticked. He was desperate. He was already three-fourths of the way back to his house, and the doll – sorry,  _baby_ – in his back seat hadn't stopped screaming once since he had started his car. He felt like screaming right along with the thing –  _her_.

And then he had a thought, a flash of light in the proverbially unimaginable darkness. Troy's house was only a couple of blocks from here. He could go there for help with Sparky, since Sharpay wasn't answering her phone. Surprise, surprise… why would she take an interest in  _their_  project. She obviously thought that she had better things to do.

He swung his truck in to the Bolton's driveway, unsurprised to see Troy's bucket of bolts already in the drive. Yeah, Chad had left the school building before Troy and Gabriella, but it had taken him at least three times longer than it had them to figure out how to buckle the stupid, worthless, way too pink car seat into his vehicle.

As he climbed out of his truck and started trying to undo the car seat that he had struggled so much to get in, the stray thought ran across his frazzled, aggravated mind,  _I wonder what ever so very important thing Sharpay is doing right now?_


	7. The Breakup - Ryan

Ryan was shocked, stunned, really. While at Kelsi's, he and the brunette composer had decided that he would take Sebastian to his house for the night in hopes that maybe having Sebastian around would soften Sharpay to the idea of doing her part of her own project with Chad. But even he hadn't expected their plan to work so well.

It had taken Sharpay about an hour to warm up to Ryan's "son," but since then she had – in true Sharpay form – completely taken over. She couldn't get enough of her fake "nephew." She was currently sprawled on her stomach on her bed, playing with Sebastian, and obviously in a great mood.

Ryan, standing in her bedroom doorway, watching, took a deep breath and decided to take the plunge. He walked into the room and stood gripping the footboard of Sharpay's bed. "Hey, Sis?"

"Yeah?" she looked up at him with wide and unblinking brown eyes.

He cocked his head to the side, asking the obvious, "Are you enjoying my project?"

"Yes! Oh my goodness, he's so adorable!"

Ryan nodded, deciding to just go for it. "What about Chad and… Sparkle? You seriously blew him off today, you know. I mean, come on, you went so far as to lie about having a nonexistent costume fitting, Shar."

Sharpay bolted upright, a wild look in her eyes. "Oh my gosh! How could I have left that poor, innocent baby with someone – some _thing_ – like Chad Danforth? What sort of a mother am I?"

Sharpay scrambled for her cellphone. Ryan quickly grabbed Sebastian off of his sister's bed and left her to make her phone call, smiling to himself all the while. He and Kelsi were apparently brilliant masterminds. Now to wait and see how all of this panned out.


	8. The Breakup - Taylor

Taylor sighed heavily as she shut her science textbook. She was done with her homework for tonight. But hopefully no one asked her what it had been about; for once she didn't think that she would be able to tell them. She had been too preoccupied with thoughts of her faltering relationship with Chad and, to a lesser extent, with her and Zeke's now-"sleeping" "son," whom she had christened Max. So far he was being mercifully easy to handle, giving her more time than she wanted to have to think over "The Situation with Chad."

See, the thing was, this situation had been going on for a while, and today something in her had snapped. She had realized that the situation – that their relationship – wasn't going to get better. That Chad probably didn't even want it to.

She knew that Chad wouldn't call it off himself, though. If he didn't want to have her around, he simply wouldn't hang around her. He would ignore her like he had been doing for at least the past week. So, once again, she was going to have to have to bite the bullet, be the grownup in the situation, and do what needed to be done.

Taylor sat down on the edge of her bed and took a couple of deep breaths, literally telling herself, "I will not cry. I cannot cry. The fact that you even have this problem means that he's not worth crying over." Another deep breath as she fell onto her back on the bed and grabbed her cell phone off of her dressing table nearby, then, "Stop it, Taylor. Just call him, do it, and hang up."

She obeyed herself, placing the call and then listening as the phone rang, still breathing in and out to keep herself calm as she waited.

Then he answered, "Hey, Taylor."

She heard a truck door slam in the background as she said, "Chad, listen. We need to talk about us."

"Okay," he answered slowly.

"Okay," she repeated, taking another deep breath.

Now that she was here, talking to him, the words that she needed came remarkably easily. And then it was over; she had said her piece and could practically feel "they" as a couple ending, even through the phone.

Chad said, "Fine. It's really, really okay." The worst and best thing about it was how easily he said the words, as if he really, truly meant it. "Hey, no hard feelings, right? We can still be friends?"

"Yeah," Taylor nodded. "Of course. I mean, we really shouldn't let this affect our friends."

He sounded relieved as he answered, "Good. Hey, look, Taylor, I've got another call coming in. It's from Sharpay, probably about the project, so I had better take it."

"Yeah, yeah. Sure." She was nodding during a cell phone conversation again.

"Bye, Taylor."

Taylor sighed. "Goodbye, Chad."

But before she had even said it, he was already long gone.


	9. The Breakup - Troy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that Chad doesn't seem too OOC in this chapter to anyone but me.

Bouncing a snoozing TJ in her arms, Gabriella glanced out the window, commenting, "Hey, Troy, look who's here."

Troy sidled over to the window, obeying his girlfriend. As he watched, Chad stopped in the middle of the Bolton's driveway and dug his cell phone out of the pocket of his shorts, answering a call that he had apparently gotten. A weary look crossed Chad's expression before he answered his cellphone, and then wariness entered his eyes as the caller apparently began to talk. After a minute, Chad set the car seat down in the driveway and leaned back against the cab of his truck, crossing his ankles as he stood. A couple minutes more of this conversation and then Chad hung up.

Seeing his friend's shoulders slump as he sighed, Troy's hand moved to the front door's door knob so that he could go check on his buddy. But then he realized that Chad had once again answered a phone call so he stayed where he was, still watching his closest friend.

This time, Chad seemed uncertain from the beginning of the call as Troy saw him say a careful "hello." Again, Chad barely said a word, only listened to the person on the other side of the phone and then made a couple of parting remarks before hanging up.

Making sure that Chad had taken all of his calls before he moved back towards the door, Troy stepped outside.

"Hey, man, long time no see," Troy joked.

Chad smiled half-heartedly – it was really more of a grimace – looking a little dazed as he slid down to sit on the concrete steps of the Bolton's porch. Troy flopped down beside him in time to hear his friend mumble, "She quit."

"Who?" Troy asked, smirking because there really was no way to be serious when saying this name. "Sparkle?"

Chad blinked at the doll in the car seat that had been set down on the ground beside him. "Oh, yeah, she did."

Troy raised his eyebrows, asking, "Who did you mean, then?"

Chad sighed with – was that relief? – as he answered, "Taylor."

"What's wrong with Taylor?" Troy asked carefully, knowing that his friend probably had a list of answers to that question.

Chad shrugged carelessly, slowly coming back to himself. "She broke up with me."

"Over the phone? Just now?"

Chad nodded.

Troy whistled and then muttered, "Oh man…"

Giving him a look that meant that he thought Troy was having a moment of density, Chad cut off whatever else Troy might have said by asking, "You know that I'm fine with it, right?"

Because of his friend's previous dazedness, Troy wasn't buying it and told his co-captain as much by asking, "Then why were you acting so weird a second ago?"

"Because of the second call. Apparently Sharpay has decided to quit acting like a baby about this project and do her part in it."

"Really?"

Chad nodded for the second time, looking as surprised as Troy had sounded. He shook his head in awe, elaborating, "She said something about Ryan and Kelsi's kid and being a bad mother. I'm not going to try and make sense of it, just as long as it means that I don't have to do this whole thing on my own. Anyway, she's on her way over here to pick up Sparky."

"Right now?"

"Yeah, but I figure that she'll take her own sweet little time doing it, so I wouldn't get in any big hurry, Hoops."


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter chronologically takes place after the upcoming chapter 11.

Jason was still smiling when Martha walked him to his car later on that evening. He had stayed with her and Grace for the majority of the day, even going so far as to eat supper with her and her parents. He thought that the elder Coxes had probably gotten the wrong impression about the current nature of his relationship with their daughter, though.

Oh well. Maybe with some luck Mr. and Mrs. Cox could be proven correct. But he would have to start down that road with Martha first. Maybe that start could happen something like this…

"Hey, Martha?"

She looked up at him through the twilight as they stopped by his car. "Yeah?"

He froze for a minute, unsure of himself and of how to phrase the question that he so badly wanted to ask.

Apparently he had been silent for a second too long because the pretty dancer cocked her head to the side, laid a hand on his arm, and asked, "What is it, Jason?"

He took a deep breath and took the plunge, hoping no sharks were lurking to bite him when he hit the water. "Do you want to go out Friday night? Maybe get some pizza or burgers or catch a movie?"

"You mean… like, a date?" Martha asked.

Since the sun was setting, he couldn't quite tell whether or not she was smiling as he nodded nervously. But then she did smile, widely enough that there was no mistaking it for anything but happiness, pure, plain and simple joy. Warmth spread through his face and ears as she ran her hand down his arm until her hand was cradled in his.

"Yeah," she answered. "I would really like that."

"Great," he stammered.

She smiled, nodded. "Well, good night, Jason."

"G'night."

Martha rose up on her tiptoes, gave him a quick peck on the cheek, and darted back into her house. She shoved the curtain aside from a window and waved at him. He waved in return and climbed into his car. Not realizing that Martha was still watching him from inside the house, he threw his hands up in the air, releasing a triumphant, "Yes!"

Jason never noticed how he had made Martha laugh, and he never saw the way that she spun away from the window, performing an impromptu dance.


	11. Part 3: Finally Falling - Chad

Chad was on the Bolton's basketball court shooting hoops with Troy while Gabriella, Sparky, and TJ looked on when Sharpay's pink sports car peeled into the drive. Troy raised his eyebrows as the blonde driver of the car started towards them.

As Chad tucked the basketball that they had been using under his arm, his friend remarked, "You were wrong; she showed up pretty quickly."

Chad shrugged as Sharpay halted her march in front of him.

"Where's my baby?" she demanded, her bottom lip protruding in a pout.

"Gabriella's got her," Chad said, nodding to the Latina girl in question.

Knowing what Sharpay wanted, Gabriella started towards the trio on the concrete slab with Sparky on one arm and TJ on the other. Sharpay perched her huge, white sunglasses on the top of her head and peered down at her "daughter."

"Aw!" A smile broke across the drama queen's features as she scooped the baby doll out of Gabriella's arms and into her own. "She's so cute!"

And then Sparky began to cry.

Concern shattered Sharpay's happiness, but Chad instantly recognized the problem as Sharpay asked, "What's wrong with her?"

He answered before Troy or Gabriella could, saying, "You have to support her head, like you're supposed to do with a real baby."

Stepping up to stand behind the blonde, he took one of her slender, pale hands in one of his cappuccino-colored ones and slid her hand up to the back of Sparky's head. "There; like that."

"Thanks."

Chad blinked in surprise at that single, entirely uncharacteristic word coming out of Sharpay's mouth. "What did you say?'

Sharpay glanced over her shoulder at him before returning her gaze to Sparky. "I just don't want to do anything that would hurt her," she explained as a frown tugged at her – hm, he noticed – kind of pretty mouth. But then, no one was dumb enough to think that Sharpay wasn't pretty.

"Hey," Chad smiled leisurely as he said, "You know that she's just a doll, right? She can't actually feel anything. She just cries because of the way that she's wired."

"Yeah, I know." Sharpay's tone sharpened for a second before it softened with something akin to awe as she reminded him, "But we're still responsible for her."

And that's when it hit him. This was Sharpay Evans; she had never had any responsibilities before in her life. Then this had been thrown onto them all of a sudden. Of course, for a couple of hours she had tried to dump it all on him, but she was here now, apparently ready to give this parenting thing her best shot. While Chad didn't entirely trust her, because of this flash of insight he could at least respect her. And yeah, he could admit it – he admired her for it too.

Not that he would ever actually tell her that, of course.

And then, then he realized what their positions would look like to any passersby, not to mention Troy and Gabriella. He was standing behind Sharpay with his arms wrapped around her as they both talked about the baby that they apparently shared. He jumped back, landing about a foot away from Sharpay and Sparky, and looked nervously at the places where Troy and Gabriella had been standing. But his friends were nowhere to be seen, oddly enough.

"What's wrong with you?" Sharpay asked, turning around so that she was looking him in the face.

"Nothing," Chad raked a hand through his curly hair and took a couple of deep breaths to calm down. "It's just been a stressful day; I guess that I'm tired."

"What's been so stressful about today?" Sharpay asked, actually looking interested in what he might have to say.

Chad looked at her and raised his eyebrows incredulously, returning the question with one of his own, "What hasn't been stressful about today? This project is stressful. Breaking up with Taylor is stressful – and weirdly relieving. You're stressful. Everything is stressful today."

Sharpay stood absolutely still for a second, digesting this onslaught of information, and then her eyebrows drew together as she hit upon a particularly interesting piece of his dialogue. "Wait. You and Taylor broke up?"

"Yeah. About twenty minutes ago."

She cocked her head, asking, "And you think that's 'relieving?'"

For some reason, Sharpay looked like she genuinely wanted to understand, so Chad decided to try to explain it to her. "I like Taylor, I really do, but we just can't work as a couple. We're much better off as just friends. Plan-plotting buddies, kind of like Ryan and Kelsi, I guess."

Sharpay snorted indelicately and Chad looked at her, surprised by the noise.

The blonde folded herself onto the edge of the basketball court, so Chad flopped down beside her as she declared, "If you and Taylor are better as friends, then you are  _not_ like Ryan and Kelsi."

"What?"

Sharpay shook her head ruefully. "In that way, Ms. Sanchez is a genius. A sadistic genius, maybe, but still a genius when it comes to who would work as a couple and who won't. If anything good comes out of this project, I hope that Ryan and Kelsi can get their act together and become a couple."

"Really? I though you didn't like Kelsi."

Sharpay considered this for a second before she answered him. "Kelsi Nielson… Because of her personality, she can be an annoying little mouse of a twit, and that's what I don't like about her. But she has this tendency to turn into a lion when she wants something bad enough, and that's the part that I like about her. She and Ryan bring out the best in each other, I think."

Chad just stared at her. There were suddenly too many thoughts going through his head to even name, and most of them circled around the girl in front of him. The very hot girl in front of him.

"What?" she asked, noticing him staring at her.

"Nothing," he looked away, down at the grass by his Nikes.

"No, you're thinking something. What is it?"

Chad ran through all of the thoughts in his head, trying to find one that was safe to land on and voice to her. "So, why did you run off Martha? She's sweet."

"Too sweet," Sharpay declared wrinkling her nose in a way that was, well, kind of cute.

_Chad Danforth, stop it right now!_

Sharpay continued, "Ryan needs someone who's sugar  _and spice_. Someone who will pull him out of his shell, but won't expect him to leave that shell permanently. Martha would have done that, but Kelsi is enough like Ryan that she won't."

"Oh."

The silence between them became awkward, so Sharpay said, "I'm sorry about your breakup with Taylor."

"I'm not; it's fine. Hey, maybe she and Zeke will get together! Or… are you and he…"

"Oh, no;" Sharpay shook her head quickly. "Only in his dreams. So, yeah, maybe Ms. Sanchez will end up getting all of the partners dating one another."

Chad raised his eyebrows. "All of them?"

"Well," He could tell as she looked down at Sparky that he had flustered her. She was actually blushing. What on earth was going on between him and her? "No, not everybody. Not, like,  _us_ , obviously, but maybe everybody else. You know, Ryan and Kelsi, Zeke and Taylor, and, like, maybe Martha and Jason."

Chad scooted closer to her, noting the way that her blush deepened. What  _in the world_  was going on here between them?

He was only half-joking but not really joking at all when he added, "And us?"

She looked over at him, looking nothing like the drama queen princess that he couldn't stand but had always secretly thought a little cute at times, along with the obvious entertainment that the personality provided.

"Us…" she repeated softly, her gaze drifting to his lips.

That was all the encouragement that he needed before he kissed her. He kissed. Sharpay Evans. And enjoyed it. A lot. As a matter of fact, he kissed those pretty, pink, cotton-candy-flavored lips until his lungs were burning for oxygen, and then for a little bit longer than that because he was sure that as soon as they broke apart they would never do anything like this ever again. They would pretend that it had never happened, and they would go right on back to hating – or at least pretending to hate – each other. And suddenly, Chad really, really didn't like the idea of doing that.

So it was Sharpay who ended the kiss, but they left their foreheads touching as they both breathed heavily, their breaths coming in sync.

Two thoughts hit Chad in rapid succession. Sharpay Evans had somehow during the course of that kiss moved so that she was straddling his lap. And she was doing so in broad daylight in the Boltons' backyard.

"Sharpay, we are in my best friend's backyard," he whispered.

"Well, let's get out of here then."

She stood up, watched him follow suit, took his hand, and led him towards her car. She didn't scream, she didn't run, she just smiled and led him forward towards her car, towards wherever on earth this was going to take them.


	12. Finally Falling - Kelsi

Kelsi Neilson groaned into the darkness of her bedroom and rolled over in her bed to check the time on her alarm clock. It was one-thirty in the morning; what in the world had waked her up?!

And then she suddenly noticed, jolting awake as she did so. Her cell phone was ringing. At one-thirty in the morning! She grappled blindly at her side table until she gripped the phone.

Whoever was calling her apparently had no concept of time, nor did they know what sort of a dormant, sleeping beast they had awakened. It was not a good idea to mess with Kelsi once she was snuggled deep within the comfortable cocoon of her blankets.

"This had better be good," she muttered as she squinted at the caller ID.

The name "RYAN EVANS" glared back up at her.

Okay, she had imagined (or was the better word "fantasized?") many a time about Ryan calling her and becoming as interested in her as she was in him, but still… the time…

She sighed a little and answered anyway, deciding that since it was Ryan, she didn't really mind. Besides, considering the hour – which he had to have noticed – she certainly hoped that he was considerate enough to call only because he actually needed something.

"Hello?" Kelsi winced, realizing how out of it she sounded, so she cleared her throat and tried again. "Do you need something, Ryan?"

"Can't you hear him?" Ryan asked, the desperation in his tone coming clearly through even the bad reception of her cellphone. "He won't stop crying!"

"Who?" Kelsi tried to blink the sleep out of her eyes as she turned on a bedside lamp, located her glasses, and slid them on. "I thought the screaming was Sharpay."

"No, not this late; she would usually be out cold by now. It's Sebastian!"

"Really? I thought that he was going to be a quiet baby."

"Yeah, well, so did I, but apparently he's been saving up all of his scream time to use on me in the middle of the night."

"What do you want me to do about it, Ryan?"

"I don't know; maybe just be miserable with me? I only called you because I wasn't really thinking and didn't know what else to do."

"Alright, alright." Kelsi put her head in her hand, swinging her legs over the side of her bed and propping her arm on her knees. "I…" she eased her way onto her feet and stumbled over to her dresser. "I'm going to come over to your house."

"What?"

"I'm coming over to your house." Kelsi repeated. "Where is it?"

"Um…" Ryan rattled off the address, sounding almost as dazed now as she had a minute ago.

And now she was as awake as he was as she answered, "Alright; I'm on my way."

Kelsi hung up on him then, and pulled on some clothes that she wouldn't mind being seen outside the house in. She stuck her cellphone in her pocket, pulled on a pair of tennis shoes, shut off the lamp, and moved to crack open the door of her bedroom. A quick scan showed that her parents and brother were asleep in their rooms, like all normal people were right now. So she slipped quietly out of her room, down the hallway, and out the front door. Kelsi slid into the driver's seat of her car and cringed at the noise of the vehicle starting. She backed out of the driveway and started towards the Evans' mansion.

With any luck she would be back before her parents could realize that she had left at all.

When she made it to the Evans' home, she was relieved to see that Ryan was waiting to let her in, and slightly annoyed to see that Sebastian was silent now.

"Sorry," Ryan whispered as he let her into the house. "He stopped only a couple of minutes after we hung up. I'm really sorry."

Kelsi sighed. "Oh well, that's the way it is with real babies, I guess."

Ryan shrugged and started leading her up the staircase of the house that was dormant except for the two of them. "So, did your parents actually let you out of the house at this hour? I mean, obviously they did, but are they okay with it?"

"Actually… they don't know that I'm here."

Ryan arched his blond eyebrows as he opened the door to a room and whispered, "You snuck out of your house?"

"Only this once, and I'll be home before they even know that I left."

She went into the bedroom and stood in the middle of the room. Ryan waited until she was inside and then followed suit before shutting the door to block the noise of their voices from the rest of the people in the house.

His eyebrows went to new heights. "You mean that this is the first time that you've snuck out of the house? And you're how old? And you did it for me!"

"I did it for Sebastian," Kelsi contradicted, her cheeks flushing. "And the only reason that it's my first time is because I don't have Sharpay around to lead me on ridiculous ventures."

"Or a boyfriend?"

Kelsi nodded, repeating. "Or a boyfriend."

"Why not?" Ryan asked, sitting on the edge of his bed.

"Because I'm waiting on someone in particular," she replied, lifting her nose into the air a little.

"Jason?" Ryan asked after a barely noticeable pause, a barely noticeable flicker of disappointment across his fair features.

Kelsi snorted, flopping down beside him. "No, definitely not Jason."

"Who then? Zeke? because I'm pretty sure that Zeke is available now, if he's who you're talking about."

"No! Not Zeke!" Kelsi paused in trying not to laugh, asking, "Wait; how do you know that Zeke is 'available now?'"

Thus she saved herself from having to tell him that  _he_ was the guy that she was waiting on.

"Well, the only girl that he's interested in is Sharpay, and Sharpay is most definitely interested in someone else."

"Oh?" Kelsi leaned back against the palms of her hands, cocking her head to the side to show that he had caught her attention. "Who is it and should we help them?"

"I'm pretty sure that we've helped more than enough," Ryan declared, almost sourly.

Kelsi felt a shoot of concern as she asked, "Oh?"

"You remember how I called and told you that Sharpay was going to go pick up Sparkle? Well, when she came back, she had Chad with her too. They disappeared into her bedroom and he didn't leave until after supper, since Shar talked him into staying to eat with us. Have you ever known Sharpay's pout to work on Chad before?"

"No," Kelsi answered, wrinkling her nose.

Ryan huffed, "Well, it did today."

"While they were in her room, do you think that they were…" Seeing the look on Ryan's face, Kelsi wisely let the thought trail off, but he answered the question anyway.

"No, I popped my head in her room a few of times just to make sure, but they weren't doing... it. I think they were, I don't know, hanging out and playing house in there because of having Sparkle with them. But I caught them kissing once."

They sat in silence for a second while Kelsi digested this shocking information.

"Chad and Sharpay…" she repeated.  _What is the world coming to?_

"Yeah. I'll admit it; her twin or not her twin, I did not see that one coming."

"I guess our plan worked a little better than we had expected it to, huh?"

Ryan shook his head ruefully. "Yeah, really."

"Hey, wait just a second!" Kelsi had the thought to be miffed with him. "All of this was going on and you didn't call to tell me!?"

Ryan paused before admitting, "I was so startled myself and too busy thinking about Sharpay; I guess it didn't even cross my mind."

It was almost two in the morning and Kelsi was getting loopy, so she decided to have a little bit of fun with him.

She sniffed dramatically, "Well then! Don't I feel special!"

"You are special, Kels."

The seriousness of her tone wiped away every last bit of her playfulness as she turned to look at him. "What did you say?"

"I said that you're special, that I like you. A lot."

"You do?"

"Yeah," Ryan laughed a little, looking as nervous as she had ever seen him. "I do."

"I like you too," she whispered softly, and not just out of courtesy for Ryan's sleeping family members.

Ryan smiled. "Would you maybe… like to go somewhere Friday night… on a date?"

"I'd like that a lot," Kelsi agreed, knowing that she wouldn't be able to stop grinning for the next four hours.

Ryan's smiled broadened and he leaned over, kissing her quickly. The kiss was electrifying, waking her up to where she was in comparison to the conversation that they were having. She did  _not_  need the added temptation of already being in Ryan's bedroom in the middle of the night.

She sprung up from the bed. Seeing Ryan's look of concern, seeing that he thought that he had done something wrong, she hurried to reassure him.

"I just now realized what time it is. I need to get home. We've both got school tomorrow, and if by some chance my parents do find out that I left, I'll be dead meat. I just… it would be really nice to stay for a little bit longer, and you're fine, but I've got to get back home now."

Ryan nodded, although Kelsi wasn't sure that her rambling had been enough to convince him that he hadn't done something wrong. He stood up and they walked quietly to the front door together.

He stepped outside to see her off, and before she went to get in her car, while still standing on the Evans' front porch, she rose up on her tiptoes and kissed him on the lips.

"Good night, Ryan," she murmured.

He smiled at her, truly reassured now and answered, "'Night, Kels. Thanks for coming over."

"Any time," she replied with a grin. "After all, it was well worth it."


	13. Finally Falling - Zeke

Zeke Baylor wasn't a bad guy by any means; he was actually kind of sweet in his own way. Growing up with three older sisters had made him capable of easily tuning into peoples' emotions, and yesterday, the day that they had all been given the baby project, it hadn't taken a genius or a psychic to see that Taylor had been upset after school had let out, if not a little angry.

So Zeke had thought it a good idea to give the brainiac her space. But this morning he was feeling a little guilty for basically letting her go at the project by herself. It was like he had done the same thing that Sharpay had except he hadn't entirely meant to do it while Sharpay had known full well what she was doing, and he had harbored much better reasoning than Sharpay had. But he still felt a little guilty about it, so when he arrived at school the morning of day two of the baby doll project, he went in search of his partner, and found her predictably by her locker.

Now, again, he really hadn't meant to hurt her by leaving her with their baby doll, but when he walked up to her on that Tuesday morning, he was surprised to see how, well… awful she looked.

"Taylor," he asked, stopping at her locker. "Are you doing okay?" Taylor jumped as if she had been zoning out in space before he spoke to her and then she turned to look at him as he added, "Sorry I startled you."

She blinked, replying, "No, it's fine; I just didn't get much sleep last night. I was spacing. What did you ask? I wasn't paying attention, obviously."

"I just asked if you were okay. You look a little… rough."

"No, yeah, I'm fine. Like I said before, it's just a lack of sleep."

With his foot, Zeke nudged the car seat that was setting on the tile between them. "Did the baby keep you up last night?"

"Who, Max? No, he's been a really great baby so far. I just had a lot go on yesterday."

"Yeah, I hear you," Zeke agreed, then, realizing that Taylor had a lot more on her mind then just their project, he asked carefully, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Thanks, but no, not yet. I think that I just need to take a couple of days to let stuff sink in for me."

"Okay," Zeke nodded. "That's cool with me."

"We probably should get together sometime this week though to set some ground rules for taking care of Max," Taylor suggested.

"Yeah. When and where? You can name the place and time, as long as it doesn't mess up my schedule for basketball practice… or if it does, that would be okay too, I guess."

"No, no, I'm very good at finding time to be with people around their basketball schedules."

The hint of disdain in her voice clued Zeke in to Taylor and Chad's not so quietly kept relationship problems. Was that what was bothering her?

Before he had time to ask, or even to decide if he wanted to go there at all, Taylor asked, "How about we just rotate days until… maybe we could get together at the mall Friday after school to talk?"

Zeke nodded. "Great; I'll see you there."

Taylor nodded, halfway smiled, and took off down the hallway, leaving Max on the floor in his car seat at Zeke's feet along with the diaper bag. Zeke stared at the baby-containing car seat for a second, unsure of what to do with it, and then he sighed, hefted it all into his arms, and took off towards his own locker. As he went, he ran through his conversation with Taylor in his head.

She was not okay, and unless she talked to Gabriella about it – which was entirely possible – considering that he was probably going to be spending more time around her than all of the others because of the project, he was probably going to be the best choice to get her to talk about… whatever. He groaned; he  _really_ didn't want to play therapist to her relationship problems, but they  _were_ friends, so he did want to help her. And if that was the way that he had to do it, then so be it.

Because they were friends. Because, as a side note of a thought, she had always been his backup plan if Sharpay didn't fall for him – and it was becoming glaringly obvious that was never going to happen. So maybe it was time to find out exactly where Chad and Taylor stood, and then maybe, maybe start pursuing the object of his other, much more quietly kept crush. Zeke smiled to himself at the thought.

_After all, what can it hurt?_


	14. Finally Falling - Gabriella

"Gabriella!" Martha came to a skidding stop beside Gabriella's locker, her smile impossibly wide while hers and Jason's baby swung about in the car seat that was hanging off of her arm. "Guess what?"

Gabriella peered at Martha in surprise from the opposite side of her locker door. "Good morning to you too!" Gabriella laughed lightly. "What's got you so excited?"

"Jason. He asked me out on a date!"

Gabriella felt her dark brown eyes go wide. "He did?!"

"Last night when he was over at my house," Martha confirmed, nodding eagerly. "We're going to the mall Friday after school."

"Martha, that's great!" Gabriella happily hugged her friend. Her smile dimmed as a new thought came to mind. "Speaking of guys, have you seen or talked to Taylor this morning? I tried texting and calling her last night, but she never would get back with me."

Martha shook her head, concern clouding her eyes as well. "No, I haven't... but I have talked to Kelsi this morning, and she said... that Ryan had told her that Chad had been... well, how do I put it?"

"He had been getting really comfortable with, say, Sharpay?" Gabriella only half guessed, her eyebrows going up a millimeter.

"Yeah;" Martha leaned in close to Gabriella and asked, "How do you know?"

"Chad and I were at Troy's house when Sharpay came by to pick up hers and Chad's baby. And that was where they started, you know, kissing and stuff." Gabriella shrugged. "They either thought that Troy and I weren't watching, or they just didn't care who saw what they were doing."

"That really stinks for Taylor," Martha murmured.

Even though Chad was her boyfriend's best friend, Taylor was her best friend, and Gabriella couldn't help but agree with the dancer in front of her. "Yeah, you're right; it does."

"What stinks for Taylor?" Jason Cross asked, stepping up to stand beside Martha. Apparently he had been looking for her.

Martha looked over at Jason, answering, "Whatever's been going on with Chad and Shaepay since yesterday."

"Are you kidding?" Jason asked, his eyebrows rising. "Have you seen Taylor since homeroom? Zeke's been hanging around her all day. They've apparently really hit it off; neither one of them has stopped smiling all morning, at least not when I've seen them."

"Really?" Gabriella asked in surprise. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, absolutely."

"Huh," Gabriella shrugged. "I never saw that one coming."

It was Jason's turn to shrug as he replied, "Well, I think that Zeke's had a thing for her for awhile, but he only decided to do something about it when he realized that Sharpay wasn't going to come running and fall into his arms one of these days."

"So she's only his... what, second choice?" Gabriella asked with a frown.

Jason looked away uncomfortably before answering, "If you want to put it like that, you could. But sometimes the second choice is the best choice." He smiled meaningfully at Martha as Kelsi's face flashed through Gabriella's thoughts.

"Yeah," Gabriella decided, relaxing. "That can be true in some cases."

Martha and Jason wandered off towards his locker, but after literally less than a minute they were replaced by Kelsi.

"Guess what, Gabriella!" Kelsi demanded of her.

Again, Gabriella peered around her locker door, but this time she felt more guarded. "Uh, let's see... Did Ryan ask you out on a date, by any chance?"

"Yeah; we're going to the mall Friday! Wait, how did you know? Did Ryan already tell you before I caught you?"

"Nah," Gabriella shook her head. "It was just a hunch. Congrats, Kels. It's about time!"

Kelsi laughed nervously. As she opened her mouth to answer, the bell rang. "Oh, off I go to History."

Gabriella grinned as she watched her friend disappear into the throngs of students, and then she started off towards her own class. This project and the mess that it had made might just work out for the better after all.

At the end of the day as Gabriella made her way out of her final class, Teen Living, Gabriella was grabbed by the forearm and pulled out of the stream of students before she found herself being half led, half dragged into the chemistry lab. And then she realized that she had been nabbed by the girl that she had been trying to get together with for a conversation during the entire course of the day. Nabbed by the girl who had obviously been entirely too caught up in Zeke to talk to her.

"Taylor, what are are you doing?!" Gabriella asked in exasperation as Taylor closed the lab door behind them before flicking the lock.

"I don't know!" Taylor cried desperately, as she began to pace. "That's the entire point! Chad and I just broke up yesterday, and now Zeke is being so great, and... Gabriella, he asked me to go to the mall with him after school on Friday! Like, on a date! What do I do? What am I supposed to tell him?"

Gabriella was surprised at this wild barrage from her friend, but she discarded that emotion in favor of being the help that Taylor obviously needed. "Well, do you want to go on a date with Zeke? Independently of what happened with Chad yesterday - don't even consider that right now - do you want to go on a date with Zeke Baylor?"

Taylor considered this for a few seconds, and Gabriella saw that she was calming down as she did so. "Yeah," she finally answered. "Yeah, I do."

Gabriella nodded crisply as a smile made it's way onto her face. "Well then, there's your answer. Go to the mall with him, have some fun - I mean, you guys are already friends, so why not? - and then just see where it goes." Gabriella broadened her grin. "Because judging by what the entire school has seen today of you, Zeke, and even your guys's little baby Max, it could be very promising."

Taylor grinned now too. "Alright, I'll do it."

"Then you had better go find him before he leaves," Gabriella suggested.

She unlocked the chemistry lab door and held the door open for Taylor as the two girls split ways. Taylor hurried out of the school towards the parking lot and Gabriella went in the direction of her locker.

Troy was waiting for her when she got there, TJ in his arms. "Hey, you; where have you been? Us guys have been waiting for you."

"Oh, yeah?" Gabriella asked, smiling fondly first at Troy and then at the other "guy" that Troy had referenced, TJ.

"Yeah. I wanted to know if maybe you wanted to do something Friday after school. I have a feeling that this first week of adjusting to having our little man around isn't going to be an easy thing, I figure by Friday we'll deserve a break."

Gabriella burst out laughing, and her laughter was made even worse by the look of confusion on Troy's face as he asked, "What?"

"Nothing; it's nothing" she answered as she finally managed to get herself back under control. "And, yes, I would love to go out Friday."

"Great. Where do you want to go?"

"Um..." Gabriella thought for a second, or at least pretended to think about it, before she answered, "The mall. I have a feeling that we'll want to see what the Wildcats are up to in there come Friday."


	15. Finally Falling - Martha

Friday evening, Martha Cox was at the mall with Jason as they had been planning and looking forward to all week.

Jason turned from the counter in the Dairy Queen section of the food court with his Blizzard and the chocolate swirl ice cream cone that he had just bought for her.

He handed her the cone with a flourish, "For a beautiful lady."

"Why, thank you." Martha smiled and accepted his offering with the same amount of aplomb.

Jason grinned in response. The moment ended, though, when his eye was caught by something over her shoulder. Martha turned to see what it was that had captured his attention.

"Hey, guys!" she called out, waving to catch the attention of Troy and Gabriella as they headed into the food court.

Their friends came over, and Gabriella sidled up to Martha, murmuring, "So, how's it going?"

Martha knew that the widening of her grin was the only response that her friend needed. Gabriella squeezed her arm, sharing in her glee.

"Hey, hey!" Troy called out across the food court, startling Jason, Martha, and Gabriella as he nodded towards another pair of Wildcats. "Look who it is! The happy couple!"

Martha felt her eyebrows aim skyward as Ryan Evans started towards them, hand in hand with Kelsi. The closer they got to the group quartet of classmates, the more Kelsi's cheeks reddened as she started trying to hide behind Ryan.

"Are you two doing what it looks like you're doing?" Martha asked Kesli when the composer and choreographer were within speaking distance.

Kelsi flushed up to her hairline as she looked at Martha, nervously asking, "What does it look like we're doing?"

"It looks like you're on a date!" Martha happily stated the obvious.

Kelsi shifted, asking in the same low, nervous tone, "And if we were on a date, would you be okay with that?"

The dancer paused for a second as she realized that Kelsi was worried about Martha's long-dead relationship with Ryan before she exclaimed softly, "Of course I'm okay with it!"

"So, things aren't going to be weird between us or anything?" Kelsi double-checked, starting to relax a little.

"No!" Martha reassured her. "You to belong together; I've known that for forever. I'm thrilled for you both! Especially since... you know..." Martha tilted her head tellingly towards Jason, who was caught up in a conversation with Troy and Gabriella. Kelsi grinned approvingly as Martha finished, "So, no, nothing is weird between us."

"If you guys want to see weird, just wait until you see the happy couple who came with Kelsi and I," Ryan added butted into the conversation, successfully - and in a way, mercifully, - ending it.

"Who?" Troy asked suspiciously, tuning in.

Ryan nodded over Troy's shoulder, signaling the approach of the "happy couple." Chad was giving Sharpay a piggyback ride as they headed towards the ever-growing group of Wildcats.

"Hey, Hoops," Chad greeted his best friend as he stopped and Sharpay dropped her feet back down onto the dingy beige tile of the mall floor.

Troy just shook his head, laughing a little at the sight of Sharpay cuddling up to Chad. "Hey, man... So," Troy raised his eyebrows and glanced pointedly towards East High's reigning drama queen. "What's up?"

"Nothing worse then what Taylor is up to," Chad answered breezily.

Though Martha watched him carefully as he spoke about Taylor, he didn't seem the least bit upset about her and Zeke, if that was in fact what he was talking about.

"Zeke is with her now," Sharpay added with a laugh.

"Have you seen them here?" Gabriella asked.

"Oh, yeah," Sharpay answered with a smile. Ever since Monday, she had became increasingly relaxed around the rest of the Wildcats, and right now she was smiling jovially at every one of them. "They're right over..." Sharpay stood up on her tiptoes and craned her neck, leaning against Chad for balance. "There." She pointed towards a store that Zeke and Taylor were coming out of.

"Yo, Baylor!" Chad called out over the crowd, drawing numerous eyes besides Zeke's and Taylor's.

Unfazed, Zeke and Taylor trotted over to join the crowd of teenagers. They had brought their baby, Max, unlike all of their friends, who had chosen to leave their own children with babysitters of sorts for the evening. Martha thought that maybe that signaled that Zeke and Taylor weren't thinking in romantic terms as easily as the rest of their friends were, but still they were here together, and that had to mean something. After all, you always had to start somewhere, right?

Out of the blue, Sharpay laughed aloud.

"What so funny?" Jason asked her.

"Nothing; it's nothing. Just thinking." Sharpay answered. "I mean, look at us all, and compare this to Monday morning. Ryan and Kelsi, Martha and Jason, Chad and I, and Zeke and Taylor. I've said it to Chad at least once and I'll say it again. It looks like we have a lot to thank Mrs. Sanchez for. She may be a sadistic genius, but she is still a genius, and she knows what she's doing when she pairs partners up."

"Yeah," Chad laughed and kissed her lightly on the lips. "Yeah, she does."


End file.
